One of the latest developments in the world of fanfiction is a debate over “archive-locking”: making one’s fanfics only visible to registered users of the archive on which they’re hosted (usually Archive Of Our Own). The argument in favour is that this prevents unintended use of the work (such as… (keep reading)

My RSS reader this week contains no less than three stories about how Bluesky is the rightful successor to Twitter and will, furthermore, save the internet. Despite this, I will not be signing up for Bluesky because I’ve determined the ideal number of Twitter-alikes in my life and it’s zero.… (keep reading)

A friend of mine sent me this screencap from a livestream of the Until Dawn remake: Until Dawn takes place in the Canadian Rockies, and Edmonton would be one of the nearest major cities to the fictional mountain where the game takes place. It also happens to be my hometown.… (keep reading)

A friend of mine is currently having his novel shopped around by an agent, and what he’s been hearing back is that the Big Five publishers almost exclusively want books with wordcounts of around 100 000 (to the point where authors with longer manuscripts, especially debut authors, are being told… (keep reading)

The thing about publishing as frequently as I do is that you eventually run out of ways to say “I’ve written a new thing, please check it out.” Anyway: I’ve written a new thing, please check it out. New Novelette: “Sebastian Moran Inflicts Six Traumatic Brain Injuries” When an art… (keep reading)

I think I’m done with Booksprout, the service I’ve been using to provide free advance copies to book reviewers. The service itself is fine, and the reviews I’ve been getting are largely positive. Near I can tell, though, said reviews haven’t contributed to book sales in any meaningful way. And… (keep reading)

So I’m back in the UK now, after three weeks visiting in Canada — specifically Edmonton, a city I am now woefully maladapted to living in. People here in Newcastle constantly complain about the state of its public transit system, but that’s only because they’ve never been to Edmonton: a… (keep reading)

I’m on vacation back home in Canada, following 30 hours of transatlantic travel ending at 1:00 AM. If you ever need to completely reset your sleep schedule, I hightly recommend 30 hours of transatlantic travel ending at 1:00 AM. Because I’m staying with my parents, who have more streaming subscriptions… (keep reading)

Committing a crime is easy. Committing a crime and getting away with it — that’s hard. One of the big stories on the internet last week was the Chase bank “viral TikTok trend.” Long story short: The prevailing narrative surrounding this whole thing is one of stupidity. There’s no shortage… (keep reading)

I’ve got a new(ish) story out this week, which means I must once again calculate how much of my personal dignity to sacrifice in the name of selling books. I don’t have the personal charisma or humiliation kink necessary to become an “author-influencer,” so my marketing options are limited to… (keep reading)